Bittersweet Endings
by Zakle
Summary: Piper loses everything only to gain it all back when time rewinds. She makes a decision so history doesn't repeat itself.


**ONE SHOT:**

 _Bittersweet Endings_

* * *

Without any drive to do anything, Piper Halliwell simply sat on the stairs, her eyes blank as she stared at her bruised hands. She felt Leo, the man she was so helplessly in love with, sat down on a stair above her, his sadness flowing off of him in waves. She took a deep breath, knowing what was happening. She knew for a long time, ever since Paige died and Phoebe left for Egypt. She knew.

"I have to go now."

Piper closed her eyes, her hands tightening in front of her as he continued on, his voice soft, angelic. She needed that voice to go on, but she needed her sisters, all of them, if she even hoped to live.

"The Elders are reassigning me to a young witch."

Her chest felt heavy, wondering if he'll fall in love with that charge as well. A tiny, insignificant, sob made its way past her stoney exterior.

"Piper, I love you. I alway will, remember that. Alway remember that. Piper," here Leo stopped, his warm hand met her shoulder. "Please talk to me. Just say something." The desperation in his voice almost made Piper break, but you can't break what was already broken, so she sat, her hands entangled in her hair as she tried to keep her breathing steady.

Then Leo left. One second his warm presence was there beside her, the next all that was left was a cold brush of air.

Just like that.

Four years of a budding relationship gone in a puff of orbs and orders. Done, gone, vanished. Piper rocked herself back and forth as she let herself break. She cried for her sisters - Prue who left the fight too soon, Paige who died never knowing, and Phoebe who never smiled.

She didn't know what possessed her right then and there, but she stood abruptly, her jaw clenched as she marched up the stairs to the attic. The door was wide open, the Book of Shadows laid in the floor in a heap of pillows and blankets. It was open to the first page - where the spell to call their powers was - but now it was nothing but a blank page, empty save for small splotches of wet paper.

"Bring them back," she whispered, grabbing the book with such force it physically hurt. "Prue, Paige, and Phoebe. Bring my sisters back to me! Bring them back!" She was screaming now, her voice still raw from the last time she cried out for help. "You owe us, you know you owe us. We did everything you asked, and this is how you repay us? By destroying my family?"

Her pleas, just like every night before she fell into a restless sleep, went unanswered. "Taking mom and Grams wasn't enough?" she whispered, her voice breaking, inaudible.

Spent, Piper curled onto the floor, and, with one hand, she grabbed onto the blanket, and covered her head. She fell asleep as soon as her weary head met the pillow.

The Book of Shadows, still cradled in her arms, begun to glow with a faint blue light.

* * *

"Piper! Piper, come on, you're going to be late!"

She opened her eyes, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Prue? Piper sat up, barely realizing she was back in her proper bed, before she remembered. _No, that can't be her,_ she thought, but still she couldn't stop from hoping.

Piper crept from her bed and hesitantly opened the door.

"Piper," Prue's voice came again. "Are you sick or something? You never wake up this late."

She turned to the voice, coming face to face to her oldest sister. "Prue." The name was barely out past her lips before she was running, her arms thrown around her sister's shoulders. "They listened, they finally listened."

"Whoa. Calm down. Did you have a nightmare?" Prue asked, concern in her dark eyes. Piper nodded wordlessly, silently taking in her sister's appearance.

Something occurred to her right then. "Where's Phoebe?"

"Hopefully, far away in New York. Where she belongs." Prue brushed past her, heading down the stairs. "Do you want coffee?" she called back.

"Um, yeah, big day and all," Piper answered stiffly. Phoebe was in New York, Prue hated her, that meant . . .

They didn't have their powers yet.

"I'll be down in a few." With that quick explanation, Piper ran up to the attic, her heart thumping in her ears. She didn't know if would work, she didn't know if it was just a dream, but she had to do it. Just once, even in a dream would be enough.

She turned the doorknob where it turned halfway then stopped. It was locked. Just like before, she mused, her hope falling before her eyes. As she turned to walk back down, a sigh on her lips, she heard the door behind her creak open.

* * *

"You took so long, so I drunk all the coffee," Prue teased, shaking her coffee cup in Piper's face.

 _Everthing is going to be alright,_ Piper thought, the first smile she wore for a long time gracing her face. The Charmed Ones were no more, they would never have those powers, they would never save the innocent, they would never lose their loved ones.

Finally, they would live their lives without being Charmed.


End file.
